making hats for teenagers at westmead

I love the emails and messages I receive from readers. Last night I received one from a lovely lady Lisa and I got straight back to her. Her 8 year old son has just been given the all clear after liver cancer. As she was leaving Westmead she discovered that they need hats for teenagers battling cancer and going through chemo. She wants to help and she messaged me. I knew it was something that we could easily come together and do.

Bev’s Country Cottage is another treasure trove of free patterns for charity knitting and has a section devoted to knitting and crocheting for cancer patients here. She also some great tips – use soft yarns like cotton, baby yarn and soft worsted, wash and dry your hat to make it even softer. Some other great tips that I’ve found in my internet travels and I’d love to hear any other tips – avoid big gaps/lacy patterns as people don’t want to show their head, long enough to cover the back of the head, softer the yarn the better, seam free is best as the seam can be uncomfortable on the head especially when sleeping.

Another great resource I found was knots of love. They have a great range of free patterns in pdf format here. And allfreeknitting.com had a list of 20 free knitting patterns here for charity.

I’d love to hear from you! Tips, patterns, advice, you want to help – just leave a comment. To get the address to send your hats to please email retromummy@hotmail.com and my lovely assistant also called Lisa will give you the address. Thank you for helping my reader Lisa in her quest to give something back to the hospital and for brightening some lives this year.

p.s if hats aren’t your thing and you are interested in knitting/crocheting blankets then another wonderful reader (I have so many!) Michelle was inspired to set up a facebook group called 67 Blankets for Mandiba and they are making blankets for Dandelion Support Network. You can join those lovely ladies here.

p.p.s another lovely reader Maria (aka Aussie Maria) sent me a gorgeous baby pattern yesterday and let me know about Knit 4 Charities which is an australian group who knit for charities and you can find out about them here. Great if you knit baby items or have a few at home you’d like to donate.

Hey Connie! Love this idea and I’m getting on board. Can you please email the postal address to send them. I will do a massive de-stash of all my softest yarns. Thanks and great work! You do an amazing job ❤️

Great idea Corrie. I am about to start on organic cotton hats from ecoyarn for little granddaughter. Thanks for raising the awareness of this.

Granddaughter was released from hospital last Saturday and back in again on very early monday after picking up an infection with her immunity compromised. She has to have a week in hospital clear of any incidents before they will let her out. Any incident starts the week cycle over again.

Hi Corrie, I love this idea. Having a family member at Westmead and being on the periphery it is hard to know how to help, and you so want to help. We buy gifts, more gifts, and more. We visit, making sure nobody has even a sniffle, and we still feel helpless but desperately want to help. Something like this is beautiful. And, even if someone is not a knitter or crocheter another way to help is to donate blood. I have never done so as am queasy, but am sucking it up and going next week to donate. I would be interested to hear other people’s ideas on how to help and support family and friends through this time.

I am grateful for those who give blood. Little granddaughter has a full transfusion roughly every three days and in between has a couple of infusions of platelets as her blood has a tiny clotting ability. I would happily give blood but a medication I am on prevents that.

Thank you Corrie for mentioning our charity challenge for 67 Blankets for Madiba Day and supporting the Dandelion Support network.. It’s very much appreciated and wonderful to see the community coming together to help one another.

Hi Corrie, would like to help and have found an easy patter (for me!). The yard stated is “I Love This Yarn! Solids”. Do you know an alternative for this yarn? The pattern is the simple slouch hat. Thanks in advance.

HI Corrie, lovely idea, I have just finished my first slouch cap and onto the next, I also have got my mum onboard. Can you please email me the address where I can send the caps, or do I send them straight to Westmead?